


Blood is Red, Your Lips are Blue

by tryslora



Series: All Our Yesterdays [21]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Community: fullmoon_ficlet, Divorce, M/M, Major Character Injury, Past Divorce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 10:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1131392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tryslora/pseuds/tryslora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blood is red, your lips are blue. I’ll steal this kiss, and pray I don’t lose you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood is Red, Your Lips are Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for prompt #51 at fullmoon_ficlet. We were given amnesty and could do any prompt from the prior year, and this was for the prompt Red. As always, I don't own the characters or world of Teen Wolf, I just like to play with them.

This isn’t how things were supposed to go.

There was a lead, followed by an investigation, followed by a fight… and now Nikki’s terrified shriek as Caleb protects her and the air reverberates from her scream.

In the end, five people lie curled on the ground in the darkness, and Nikki fights for air around the screams.

“Nobody’s going to die,” Jackson assures her. “Nobody else is going to die.”

He’s afraid that he’s lying, and Caleb gives him the look that says he hears the skip of Jackson’s heart over the words, the little flutter that means he’s more worried than he’s willing to let on.

“You need to take her home.” He points to the car, past the cleanup from the fight. “You need to take her to your home _now_.”

“Shouldn’t she be—”

Jackson shakes his head once, quick and sharp. “No. Your place. I know you’ll keep her safe, and I know your parents will be there soon.” When Caleb hesitates, Jackson snaps, “Go!”

Scott’s voice comes from somewhere in the darkness, echoing that one word, and Caleb finally leaves.

“I need you over here,” Scott says, and Jackson is there as quickly as he can manage. He reaches out to the still figure on the ground, his own fingers red with blood, but there is so much more on Stiles. Too much more.

Jackson cocks his head, listening carefully for the stuttered thump of Stiles’s heart, relieved to find it beneath the slow breath. “He’s alive. I’ve got him.”

Scott’s hand rests on Jackson’s shoulder. “He’s still human; he needs a hospital.”

“Yeah. I’ll get him there.”

Scott is in alpha mode, getting Lance to call the police on an anonymous tip about dead bodies in the preserve, while Derek carries Athene to their car, and Cora sits up, holding her head gingerly. Jackson doesn’t care about them anymore. Athene and Cora are wolves, they’ll heal. The teenagers who were caught by this supernatural creature are dead; there’s nothing anyone can do for them anymore.

Stiles is too close to the edge for comfort, and there’s no ambulance in sight. Jackson carries him carefully to the car and heads for the hospital.

#

The memory of sitting in one of these chairs with Nikki is still stark in Jackson’s mind as he tries to fold his frame into the cold plastic space. His hand tangles with Stiles’s, fingers linked together, black lines snaking up Jackson’s arm as he tries to take the pain away.

Stiles is pale from blood loss, his skin chill to Jackson’s warm fingers. When Melissa stops in, she offers him a blanket as if he were still a teenager, and he accepts, wrapping it around himself as he lays his head on the bed next to Stiles.

“You are a fucking idiot,” he murmurs, lips close to Stiles’s fingertips. “You say she’d rush in, but where did she learn it from? Too much heart and not enough sense to know to let the werewolves go first. We would have done it. We would have tried, but you just had to… you had to… _fuck_ , Stiles, that thing almost gutted you.”

His thumb slides over the back of Stiles’s hand, reassuring himself that he’s still there. He laughs, softly. “I talked to Allison while I was gone. You know that already. She kept telling me how safe it was in Beacon Hills. That nothing happened here anymore. That you were okay, and Nikki was growing up happy, and everything was fine. You really did stop everything fifteen years ago, but it feels like it’s coming back worse than ever. And you’re in the middle of it. Let Scott be the alpha. Let Derek growl at things, and let the werewolves gut things. Be _safe_ , Stiles. Nikki needs you.”

Jackson bows his head, because this hurts. It aches, and it’s making him feel like he’s bleeding out on the inside. In all those years, he never thought about what it would be like to lose Stiles, because he always knew where he was. He was safe, then, just on the other side of the country.

Now he’s right here, but he might as well be miles away.

His phone buzzes, and he doesn’t have to check, he knows who it is. “I have to talk to Nik,” he says quietly. “Which means I’m going to step away, and you’re still going to be here when I get back. I’ll take as much of your pain as I can, and you are going to stick around. You made a promise that no one was going to die this time, and that includes you. Because I can’t tell Nikki that her dad got himself killed. Don’t make me do that.”

He stands and leans back in, lips brushing against Stiles’s forehead. “I need you too, asshole.”

He gets the phone out of his pocket, wrestles his breathing under control as he dials her back. “Hey. Nikki. Yeah, we didn’t get there in time, they’re both dead.” Two teenagers who had decided to spend a romantic night in the preserve… when they’d mentioned their plans to Nikki, the entire pack had mobilized, but not soon enough. He listens and nods as she gives him a status for Athene and Cora, but his eyes never leave the still body in the bed.

She asks, as he knows she will. And he says what has to be true, because he can’t say anything else. He can’t let himself believe anything else. “He came through surgery fine and everything’s going to be okay.” His eyes close at her question. “I’m not going anywhere, Nik. Keep Caleb with you, and don’t leave the McCall house. I’ll stay here with your dad. I promise, I won’t let him go.”

He hangs up on the call and sinks back into the hard plastic seat, tangling his fingers with Stiles’s again, the black lines starting as he eases what pain he can. “Don’t make me a liar, asshole,” he whispers. “Stay.”


End file.
